While some may argue the point, another aspect of "Lionel vs. Bachmann" is that Lionel produces toy trains while Bachmann (for the most part) produces model railroad equipment. Lionel three-rail stuff is deliberately toylike, rather than attempting to be a realistic model. Aside from their lower-end stuff, Bachmann and other manufacturers shooting for the "model railroad" market attempt to model a prototype or a type more closely. If what you want is a charming cute layout with big shiny chunky retro-looking locomotives speeding around curves with the little flagman that pops out of the house, then you want Lionel. Nothing wrong with that, either. If you want to model real railroading a bit more accurately, you want...well, not necessarily Bachmann, but you want model railroading stuff. There are model railroaders who model in O scale, but generally they don't use Lionel equipment--not due to reliability issues, but because they run equipment that runs on two rails and is more realistic in appearance.